Why read As If an Enemy's Country?

Book cover of As If an Enemy's Country: The British Occupation of Boston and the Origins of Revolution

Book description

In the dramatic few years when colonial Americans were galvanized to resist British rule, perhaps nothing did more to foment anti-British sentiment than the armed occupation of Boston. As If an Enemy's Country is Richard Archer's gripping narrative of those critical months between October 1, 1768 and the winter of…

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American history

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Why read it?

1 author picked As If an Enemy's Country as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Eliot Pattison

Author

I deeply enjoyed Archer’s book for its intimate depiction of Boston’s life under British occupation from 1768 until mid-1770.

It was a city under siege in many respects, with four thousand troops in a community of only sixteen thousand souls. The city’s streets –mostly paved with oyster shell—come to life with details on tavern fare, street life, troop encampment, epidemics, the violent celebrations of the annual Pope’s Day, popular song parodies, and the three hundred women who initiated a boycott of foreign tea.

Here too you can meet early patriot leaders like James Otis, who was rendered “insane” by a…

From Eliot's list on The best books for getting inside the hearts and minds of the American Revolution.